Hi and welcome to another Emlex podcast.

I'm Anorego, managing editor for Emlex's London Bureau.

Today we'll be looking at Brazil, white-collar crime and petrobras.

Three awards that have appeared side by side in hundreds of Emlex articles in the last few years.

Joining me today, we have Rodrigo Russo in Emlex's office in Sao Paulo.

Ben Lucas and Martin call in London.

Hi.

Hello.

Hi.

So Brazilian prosecutors have kick-started a new phase in this long-running probe into Petrobras.

We could sit here all week discussing the ins and outs of this tale, but I really want to focus on this latest phase and see what it really has brought to light.

We see lots of multinational companies have surfaced. Perhaps Ben, you can take us through what this latest phase means.

Sure, so the allegations are contained in a transfer court documents filed around the middle of August, a court in the city of Curichiba by federal prosecutors from the state of Paranar, which is the prosecutor that is leading the investigation into corruption surrounding Petrobras, which is known as Operation Lavajato.

And now there's been a number of multinational companies that have been named in the

prosecutor's documents, including Greek shipping companies, Zakos and Aegean, US Asphalt

trader, Sergeant Marine, sea drill, which is a Norwegian offshore drilling company, and

Anglo-Swiss miner, Glencore, through its wholly owned subsidiary, which is a Norwegian offshore drilling company, and Anglo-Swiss miner, Glencourt,

through its wholly owned subsidiary, which is called Ocean Connect Marine.

Now, without going into the details of each specific case, the prosecutors file say that basically

these companies paid middlemen, who in turn paid bribes to Petrobras officials for inside information to help them secure contracts for these companies.

And in several of the cases, the middlemen got kickbacks from the agreements, and money also went on to Brazilian lawmakers who controlled some of the appointments at Petrobras.

Now, the prosecutor's allegations are based on documents and testimonies from former Petrobras officials,

...